Those Boeing Delays Are Forcing Big Cuts To American Airlines Flying

American Airlines is making changes to its international schedule, and they’re telling employees that it is because they’re having to plan for fewer widebody planes. Boeing delivery delays on the 787-9 aircraft that American has ordered mean they’re not going to be able to support the full schedule they’ve been selling.

As part of these changes, American is also making further adjustments to its network. This includes increasing service on some routes as well – so these changes aren’t entirely Boeing’s fault. Those service adjustments are being bundled in with bigger changes.

Aviation watchdog JonNYC shares the specific routes that American is cutting, seasons they’re shortening, and the handful of routes that will be bolstered:

AA pic.twitter.com/rMc7MU3pCs

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) April 26, 2024

I was surprised to see the second New York – Rome flight that American just added cut, and also to see summer seasons shortened on several flights. While American is cutting back their expectations for widebody deliveries, and that means having fewer planes available later in the year, broadly speaking (and even though there are winter seasonal flights to operate) flights that they’re able to fund in the summer should be easier not harder to fund in winter.

American Airlines Boeing 787

American Airlines struggled in 2023 when everyone wanted to go to Europe, and their route network was so much more domestic-focused than Delta’s and United’s. They couldn’t shift capacity over the Atlantic, because they didn’t have the planes.

New Boeing 787-9s Will Be Delivered With Business Class Suites, Credit: American Airlines

During the pandemic, American Airlines retired their full fleets of Airbus A330s, Boeing 767s, and Boeing 757s capable of those missions. (They also retired their Embraer 195s.) While they may not have been able to fully anticipate problems that Boeing would face that would impact deliveries of 787s, other carriers like United took more of a ‘wait and see’ approach to their fleet rather than rushing into retirements. They were even still paying leases on A330s they’d removed from their fleet. And, of course, American Airlines has also chosen to defer some of their 787 orders into the future as well.